Two of the plays were passes, for nine and 14 yards, to wide receiver Freddie Solomon, a doubtful quantity in the 49ers' pregame plan because of a knee injury suffered three days earlier. NCAAW. The 1982 San Francisco 49ers season was the franchise 's 33rd season in the National Football League and their 37th overall. In the first quarter, Eagles kick/punt returner Wally Henry fumbled a punt due to a hit from Lawrence Taylor and Beasley Reece recovered the ball for the Giants at the Philadelphia 26-yard line. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. However, the Cowboys soon returned the favor with Danny White's interception to linebacker Bobby Leopold, and this time the 49ers converted, regaining the lead at 21-17 with a 2-yard touchdown run by running back Johnny Davis. We present them here for purely educational purposes. He failed to pick up an audible blocking change. The AFC champions advanced to a second-and-goal on the 5-yard line before Anderson was sacked for a six-yard loss by Jim Stuckey. Brooks returned the ensuing kickoff 35 yards to the 43-yard line. Their first half drives started from the 21, 20, 8, 20, 8 and 19-yard lines. Todd then led the Jets 80 yards in eight plays and completed a 30-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Jones. 2023 ChampsOrChumps.us Terms Privacy Policy, Won Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Aided by two receptions from Charlie Joiner for 49 yards, the Chargers then drove 74 yards to the Miami 10-yard line, where Benirschke eventually kicked the winning field goal. The worst start to a 49ers season Montana led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl victories (1982, 1985, 1989, 1990) and was named the Super Bowl's Most . Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? NFC Championship - San Francisco 49ers at Washington Redskins - January 8th, 1984 NFL Scores Playoffs Washington Redskins 24 16-2 Prev Game Next Game Coach: Joe Gibbs San Francisco 49ers 21 11-7 Prev Game Coach: Bill Walsh Sunday Jan 8, 1984 Start Time: 12:30pm Stadium: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Logos via Sports Logos.net / About logos started the season with 5 [2], at Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Al Golub), Dallas Cowboys Defensive Back Everson Walls (24) hangs on to San Francisco Wide Receiver Dwight Clark (87) after he catches pass during the NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park in San Fransisco on January 10, 1982. Philadelphia then drove 80 yards, 44 of them coming from 3 Giants penalties, in 9 plays to score on Montgomery's 1-yard touchdown run, cutting their deficit to 27-21 with 2:51 left in the game. Do you have a sports website? The lost yardage on the grounding penalty pushed the Buccaneers out of field goal range and they ended up punting. I figured I could go underneath. This was the first postseason meeting between the Chargers and Bengals.[2]. The National Football League playoffs for the 1981 season began on December 27, 1981. It marked the Giants' first postseason victory since the 1958 playoffs and their first ever road postseason win. While surrounding areas shivered in below zero chill factors, 81,270 enjoyed 72-degree comfort in the huge, 5-year-old stadium. (AP Photo/Paul Spinelli), Dallas Cowboys quarterback Danny White (11) throws a pass during the NFL football game NFC Championship between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers in San Francisco, California on January 10, 1982. Cribbs rushed for 83 yards and a touchdown, while also catching 4 passes for 64 yards. CBS's broadcast of the Giants-49ers NFC Divisional Playoff game also featured the introduction of the telestrator to a national audience. San Francisco 49ers Franchise Encyclopedia. "We weren't even picked for third in our division," he noted. The Bengals, admitted to the American Football League in 1968, won a Central Division title in the realigned NFL in 1970, but succumbed to Baltimore in the playoffs. Eleven plays carried the Niners to the Cincinnati 11, from where Montana passed to Earl Cooper on the 3. Their first season was in 1950, and their most recent season was in 2022. ", Paul Brown, founder and long-time coach of the Bengals, attributed the defeat to "too many mistakes early against a good team. (Corky Charles Trewin/NFL), Dallas Cowboys Running Back Tony Dorsett (33) make run against the San Francisco Defensive Line. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. The 49ers finished 36, thus missing the playoffs despite the expanded sixteen team format. In the club's 1981 media guide, Walsh was quoted as saying: "We have been able to add slowly potentially better athletes to our squad, especially with this year's draft, and that's working to make us potentially better overall. The "long way to go" that Walsh foresaw was covered in six months. Then rookie free safety Michael Downs picked off a pass from Williams and returned it 21 yards to the Tampa Bay 33, leading to Dorsett's 5-yard score that put the team up 24-0. However, Buffalo was called for a delay of game penalty, and Ferguson's pass attempt on the next snap fell incomplete. There are only four teams left in the 2022 NFL season's playoffs as we head to the conference championship round.Fresh off a win over the Cowboyson Sunday night, the 49ers will face the Eagles . Later on the drive, Johnson converted a fourth and inches situation with a 7-yard run, and Anderson eventually finished it off with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Bass, making the final score 277. The win sent the 49ers to their first Super Bowl and snapped their three-game playoff losing streak to the Cowboys. They've been in the playoffs a total of 28 times in their 73 seasons. On their first possession of the second quarter, the Bengals mounted another drive. Much of the post-game talk centered on the 49ers' goal line stand and the general belief that they had only 10 men on the field for two of the plays. . 1989 San Francisco 49ers Rosters, Stats, Schedule, Team Draftees Previous Season Next Season Record: 14-2-0, 1st in NFC West Division ( Schedule and Results ) Coach: George Seifert (14-2-0) Points For: 442 (27.6/g) 1st of 28 Points Against: 253 (15.8/g) 3rd of 28 Expected W-L: 12.6-3.4 SRS: 10.67 (1st of 28), SOS: -1.14 Playoffs: "The Catch" Cowboys vs. 49ers 1981 NFC Championship | NFL Full Game NFL 10.9M subscribers Subscribe 6.4K Share 808K views 6 years ago In honor of Free Game Friday relive one of the greatest. As Bunz handled lead blocker Alexander on the fourth-down smash, Reynolds led the charge that snuffed out Johnson. For more than 30 years, the 49ers had strained and struggled in a bid for distinction, but their best efforts produced only three division titles. ", Middle linebacker Jack Reynolds, in his 12th consecutive playoff season, "thought Johnson would carry the ball in all those short-yardage situations.". During their nonproductive years, the 49ers finished last six times, including the 1978 season when they won only two games and lost 14 under the split leadership of Pete McCulley and Fred O'Connor. White threw a completion to Drew Pearson that almost went for a touchdown, but 49ers corner Eric Wright made a key tackle by getting one hand inside Pearson's jersey and dragging him down. Although they finished last again in 1980, the Bengals improved their record to 6-10 under the first-year leadership of Forrest Gregg. Then with just over 10 minutes left in the game, Cribbs ran for a 45-yard touchdown, increasing the Bills lead to 3113. Elliott rushed four times for 30 yards on the drive, while Solomon also made a big impact, catching two passes for 18 yards and rushing for 15 on a wide receiver reverse. Do you have a sports website? You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. That the 49ers and Bengals were in the Super Bowl was remarkable in itself. "The Bengals were throwing every conceivable blitz at us," said Walsh. (AP Photo/Al Golub), San Francisco Running Back Johnny Davis (38) makes touchdown during the NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park in San Fransisco on January 10, 1982. Then Miami was forced to punt and Chandler returned the ball 56 yards for a touchdown. Late in the fourth quarter, New York drove inside the Eagles 20 and had a chance to put the game away, only to have Joe Danelo miss a 32-yard field goal attempt. The three division winners were seeded 1 through 3 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams were seeded 4 and 5. (AP Photo/Paul Spinelli), San Francisco 49ers free safety Dwight Hicks (22) raises his arms on a goal line stand during the NFL football game NFC Championship between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers in San Francisco, California on January 10, 1982. Now down 17-0, New York had a good chance to get back in the game when Mark Gastineau forced a fumble from Ferguson on the Bills next drive. We had great success with that play all season, but the 49ers got great penetration. (AP Photo/Al Golub), Cowboys head Coach Tom Landry during the NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park in San Fransisco on January 10, 1982. [1] The 49ers were the fifth team in NFL history to enter a season as the defending Super Bowl champion and miss the playoffs.[2]. Please see our Contributors and Sources page for data source details. In 11 plays, the 49ers traveled 68 yards. The Bengals' next-to-last possession of the game endured for just one play, on which an Anderson pass, intended for Collinsworth, was intercepted by Wright on the Cincinnati 47 and returned to the 22, where he fumbled when trying to lateral the ball to a teammate. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. Or write about sports? The Bills drove to the Cincinnati 21-yard line with about three minutes left to play, and it appeared that Ferguson completed a fourth-down pass to Lou Piccone to gain a first down. San Francisco 49ers 252K subscribers Subscribe 44K views 3 years ago #TheCatch #49ers #49ers #TheCatch #DwightClark Take a trip down memory lane of the play that launched the 49ers. (AP Photo/Al Golub), Dallas Cowboys Defensive Back Everson Walls (24) on sidelines during the NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park in San Fransisco on January 10, 1982. ", Bunz thought at first that "Alexander would come up inside. After a pair of punts, Greg Buttle returned an interception from Ferguson 29 yards to the Bills 14-yard line, setting up's Leahy's 26-yard field goal that cut the score to 24-10 at the end of the half.[1]. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Or write about sports? Bucs quarterback Doug Williams threw four interceptions (three of which resulted in touchdowns), committed two intentional grounding penalties, and was sacked four times. Wersching's kickoff was another squibber. (AP Photo/Al Golub), List of Players: (87) Dwight Clark, (68) John Ayers, (56) Fred Quillan during the NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park in San Fransisco on January 10, 1982. But Miami re-tied the game with Strock completing six consecutive passes, the last a 50-yard score to Bruce Hardy. But after a 15-yard illegal block penalty on Clark, Montana lost a fumble while being sacked by Harvey Martin. Gregg, once described by Lombardi as "the finest player I've ever coached," appeared with the Packers in Super Bowls I and II and the Dallas Cowboys in VI. Three of the rookies earned starting assignments-cornerbacks Ronnie Lott and Eric Wright and safety Carlton Williamson.